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RECENT BLOG POSTS

Handy – A 19thC Carved Wood African Writing Aid?
A Glass Painter’s Goblet – A Rare 19th Century Discovery
Is This The Earliest Commercial Iridescent Glass?
But it doesn’t even look like glass! Sèvres Lithyalin.
It Was Before Its Time – A Curious Modern Vase
The Georgian Box & The Drag Queen
Lost Studio Glass Artists I – William Warehall
Scary Sculpture? Actually, Arctic Art!

ABOUT MARK HILL :

Mark is an author, publisher, TV presenter, and the leading specialist dealer in postwar Czechoslovakian glass. He has been an expert on the BBC Antiques Roadshow since 2007, and co-presented four primetime TV shows on antiques, collecting and interiors for BBC2, including two series of Collectaholics. Mark lectures widely and is an Arts Society (NADFAS) accredited lecturer, a member of The British Antiques Dealers’ Association, and a Freeman of the City of London.

Member of The British Antique Dealers’ Association

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MARK'S LATEST TWEETS

Tweets by @antiquemark

MARK'S INSTAGRAM

markhillantiques

Once again, the dealers and organisers of @decorat

Once again, the dealers and organisers of @decorativefair have pulled out all the stops to produce a fair full of inspiration, excitement, emotion, decoration, erudition, and more. A much-needed feast for the senses and mind in troubling times. It’s on all this coming weekend. A visit brings constant joy, as I well know! Go! Visit @decorativefair for tickets 🤩

I’m delighted to announce that I have joined the

I’m delighted to announce that I have joined the BBC Antiques Roadtrip team!

It’s fast-paced, fab fun taking the classic for a spin around Scotland with my dear friend Roo Irvine (@rooirvine). We found treasures galore - tune in later this year to find out what they are! And, of course, who wins!

In the meantime, you can read an interview with me by the kind people @hellomag here -

https://www.hellomagazine.com/film/20220504139330/antiques-road-trip-mark-hill-new-expert-exclusive/?viewas=amp

I just walked through a busy hotel reception in my

I just walked through a busy hotel reception in my @earlofbedlam tweed Plus Fours and everyone looked. Not sure if it’s because they are Plus Fours or because I undid the calf buckles to sit down for dinner and they made me sound like a Morris Dancer as I walked along. Or both…

I give them back. Single use plastic cups. Inste

I give them back. Single use plastic cups.

Instead I pop out my £12 Edwardian collapsible silver-plated cup. More elegant, more fun, and more sustainable - with a quick rinse, it will last a lifetime. Antiques really are green.

Some things are just too cheap. Like this 17th cen

Some things are just too cheap. Like this 17th century engraving I bought yesterday.

It was printed by hand in 1686, and was produced by Dutch engraver Michael Burghers for Robert Plot’s ‘Natural History of Staffordshire’, published that year.

It shows Prestwood House and estate, country seat of the wealthy Foley family. The house, near Kingswinford, was demolished in the 1920s.

It’s large, beautiful, and filled with a wealth of wonderful detail. And it’s very, very old.

336 years old, to be precise, made during the reign of King James II. Nearly three and a half centuries ago.

It cost me £12. The price of a glass of good wine in a bar, or an okay bottle from a supermarket. And how long do they last?!

“It looks like an old steam train!” she exclai

“It looks like an old steam train!” she exclaimed.

“The ones with a dead spider in the bottom are always worth looking at.” a friend once told me.

Chance find this week - a 1980s Polish Velt studio glass chimney vase, designed by Maria Veltuzen-Nagrabecka and made at the Stanislav Michny glassworks, inscribed ‘Velt’ on the base.

£10. Organic detritus and double dead spiders inside, free.

Two curious small bowls bought in an antiques shop

Two curious small bowls bought in an antiques shop in Naples, Italy, this past weekend. They were being used as eggcups to hold two nearly new Christmassy painted eggs. I thought they were Finnish at first, by Tapio Wirkkala or someone like that. Now I’m not so sure as I can’t find the shape. The cutting is also slightly different on each, but I love the optical effects caused by the thick bodies and rounded rims. More research to be done!

I’ve seen plenty of souvenir brooches or pins co

I’ve seen plenty of souvenir brooches or pins commemorating the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II before. But not this one.

Browsing around the excellent @wembleyantiquesmarket today, I chanced upon it for £10.

What a perfect piece to find in Her Majesty’s platinum jubilee year, marking her 70th year on the throne.

Sadly, this pin isn’t made from platinum to match the year. Like most Coronation souvenir jewellery, it’s plated base metal and some rather cheap rhinestones. One or two of which are missing. So we agreed £8 would do.

But it is an original pin from 1953, with a Tudor rose, a clover, and a thistle to mark the countries of the Union. Two ‘baguette’ cut ‘stones’ sit between E and R to mark she was the second queen named Elizabeth. On top sits a crown.

As I said, I’ve never seen this one before - have you?

Vivat Regina!

Yes, it’s a bit creepy. Well, maybe more than a

Yes, it’s a bit creepy. Well, maybe more than a bit creepy. But it’s an original painting and the frame was nice - once upon a time.

I’ve always been strangely fascinated by those weird, kitschy pictures of big-eyed, large-headed children that were so popular in the the 1960s-70s, led by Margaret Keane’s work. Definitely a fad then, but so very collectable today.

I guess it’s that weird attraction you sometimes feel towards something you really hate.

So I couldn’t resist this 16in high painting, especially as it was ever so slightly more palatable and interesting than the usual fare. We agreed a price of £15, too. You see framed prints literally every-where, but never original paintings. Somehow, hideous as I find them, I don’t think they should be ignored as an international fad of their day.

On the tube home, I managed to read the signature, ‘I Vernet’. Bingo! L. Vernet was a highly prolific illustrator for prints and postcards during the period.

I can’t find anything out about the presumably highly commercially successful Vernet online, so he’s very much a mystery. Also a mystery is where I shall hang it to scare guests. The downstairs loo, or the guest bedroom?! 😂

Sunday funday mystery object! Any ideas?? See my b

Sunday funday mystery object! Any ideas?? See my blog for the best guess…link in bio. And there’s a clue in the image! Or maybe there isn’t. Can you sniff it out? Handy?!

We’re back! The Antiques Roadshow returns to BBC

We’re back! The Antiques Roadshow returns to BBC1 at 7pm tonight, 13th February. I’m first up, opening the show with an amazing find rescued from fire.

We were at Portchester Castle, and here I am with my esteemed and lovely colleagues and friends Hilary Kay and Ronnie Archer-Morgan. It was a great day - tune in to see what we found!!

📸 @decanterman

I bet you’ve never seen one of these before! I h

I bet you’ve never seen one of these before! I hadn’t either! Titled ‘Der Glaßmaler’ (The Glass Painter), a wonderfully detailed handpainted scene is accompanied by German verse. Read about it, and my thoughts about what it was made for, on my blog. Rare, rare, rare! Link in bio.

Posted @withregram • @bbcantiquesroadshow Surpri

Makey-doey Sunday. I’m not really much good at d

Makey-doey Sunday. I’m not really much good at doing such things with my hands. But I was quite proud of repurposing this 1970s Danish rosewood spoon shop display box into a box for my favourite pins! Now I can see them!!

What am I looking at @decorativefair? My most favo

What am I looking at @decorativefair? My most favourite pieces from the fair, two tactile patinated bronze limited edition sculptures by British artist Henry Cliffe (1919-83), for sale with @henry.saywell. I’m a real Cliffe fan and own a watercolour study of his which is definitely a keeper for me. I feel Cliffe’s wonderful work is on the up - will you make these a keeper for you?! Last day tomorrow (Sunday) to do so, and see all the other fabulous things @decorativefair that will make your soul sing.

If you do one thing this weekend, visit the @decor

If you do one thing this weekend, visit the @decorativefair in Battersea Park, London. The dealers there never fail to inspire, surprise, delight and excite. Our homes and their contents have become so much more important to us, and will continue to do so. Fill them full with fun, meaning and, well, soul. Here are some of my favourite vignettes and, last of all, my favourite piece - an etching by Marie Laurencin from @ottocento.fineart. And so superb to see the amazing late artist and sculptor Ron Hitchins receiving the posthumous credit he deserves from @edbutcher_antiques. Tickets and all the info you need on @decorativefair. Go!

Love love love my new pin from @gillianhorsup, who

Love love love my new pin from @gillianhorsup, whose shop @alfiesantiques never ceases to surprise, amaze, and delight. I never leave empty handed. This Danish sterling silver treasure was made by Viggo Fammik of Copenhagen in the 1960s. Still snazzy and modern today, sixty years after it was made.

Happy new year, everyone! Here’s to a better one

Happy new year, everyone! Here’s to a better one, and making it as good a one as we can regardless. Lets hope it’s healthy, happy, successful and fun. Cheers!

My second purchase from yesterday’s self-gifting

My second purchase from yesterday’s self-gifting visit to the only antiques shop in town. It’s a Mexican ‘ex voto’ or ‘retablo’. When something bad happened to someone, they would pray to a saint for help. When something good then happened, that person would then paint one of these votives on a tin plaque in honour of the saint’s work. True folk art. I’ve always wanted one and this one, that almost reminds me of a Craigie Aitchison painting, is pretty much perfect for me even if the votive wording has faded. Well, once I get the remains of the price sticker off. Now I just have to stop myself starting yet another collection…

This is my second time self-gifting on Christmas E

This is my second time self-gifting on Christmas Eve in an antiques shop. We should all do it, really. The first time was in Colombia and this time it’s in a rural town on the Mexican coast. It’s the only antiques shop in the town we find ourselves in and it was a real treat. But not everything is as old as it seems!! Except me. I came home with the mid-century mahogany sculpture, carried back through the gay district in my hand because they had no bags or wrapping. Not that I care. I rather love it! I hope you all get what you want tonight or tomorrow (depending on nationality). Happy Christmas all, and feliz navidad from me!

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